Please allow the freedom and flexibility to choose one's office suite like Apache OpenOffice and other important programs, like Seamonkey as a browser instead of Firefox.

Both the spreadsheet in LibreOffice and Gnumeric were unable to successfully open my .ods files created in Apache OpenOffice; neither would open with the formulas intact nor allow down-fill of a newly-created formula.

Thank goodness I found a website which offered guidance on installing Apache OpenOffice from a Ubuntu repository!!

For others who desperately searching for a way to install Apache OpenOffice, here is the URL for the instructions:

Thanks a lot Adoptapet for posting this info, worked great for me. I use OpenOffice instead of LibreOffice because Libre has/had some sort of problem when creating PDF files, but OpenOffice doesn't have that problem for me.

Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu and Debian. Neither distro offers OpenOffice; both offer LibreOffice. I haven't seen any side-by-side feature comparison of OpenOffice and LibreOffice, are there any? What would be the compelling argument for Linux Mint to include OpenOffice? I think for most Linux Mint users LibreOffice is the right choice, and for the minority of users wanting OpenOffice you have shared the PPA that can be used to install it.

xenopeek wrote:What would be the compelling argument for Linux Mint to include OpenOffice?

I've recently switched from Windows 7 to Linux Mint 14 as my main operating system because I wanted to reduce my dependency on an obviously insane company that seriously tries to sell Windows 8 as a desktop operating system. I was also highly ambitious to prove to myself that I do not need MS Office and could do anything with LibreOffice instead. After a few weeks of struggling I finally made the decision to make a 180° u turn and do all my spreadsheet work in MS Office on my Windows 7 virtual box. The reason for this is that cell border formatting in LibreOffice is broken and a complete mess. The sheets are simply unpresentable. After lots of reading through forums and the libreoffice bug tracking system I gave up and tried to switch to OpenOffice which (under Windows as least) doesn't have that weird cell border behaviour that LibreOffice has. Then I found out that against all my previous experiences with installing software on linux it is far from trivial to install OpenOffice without breaking the whole OS. So I ended up with MS Office again.

Not sure if this is compelling enough, but I think it's a good reason. On the other hand: do you have a good reason for not providing the users with the choice to install the Office system that best fits their needs?

zelmani wrote:On the other hand: do you have a good reason for not providing the users with the choice to install the Office system that best fits their needs?

I don't follow that logic. Linux Mint has available for installation various other other office suites, such as Calligra Suite and Gnome Office. And users that want OpenOffice can install it so easily from this PPA that you shared. So is OpenOffice the only spreadsheet program that has the cell borders that you want? Or will Sheets from Calligra Suite or Gnumeric from Gnome Office also work?

And are cell borders really a compelling argument for most average users to want OpenOffice? If you want the developers to take time away from other projects they are doing for Linux Mint, and spend it on bringing OpenOffice to the Linux Mint repository, then it will help their consideration if it is shown how OpenOffice is better for most average users.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that you have found a spreadsheet program that works better for your needs

xenopeek wrote:And are cell borders really a compelling argument for most average users to want OpenOffice?

Well, unless you use your spreadsheet application as a replacement for a pocket calculator, they are. Within spreadsheets, you usually organize data within tables that need to be formated by (among other means) horiziontal and vertical lines of different thinkness and style. It is common use to separate the totals row from the row above in a table by a double line. This is a crucial feature for any spreadsheet program but LibreOffice doesn't have this the way OpenOffice or MS Office do. Maybe the other Office Suites you cited may have it, but I doubt that they have the same over-all functionality and level of compatibility with other office programs. OpenOffice and LibreOffice are the leading (and maybe the only serious) competitors for MS Office, so it would make sense to offer both in the mint repositories, especially if in one or the other some features are broken like cell border formatting in LibreOffice is.

It is completely okay that you include libreoffice as default distro if u think majority users use it, but when u have firefox as default, u do have other browsers in the repo, right?

Whats wrong with keeping openoffice in the repo's? We are keeping additional software which ubuntu and debian keep in the repo's why not this? I personally find openoffice much better, and yes, borders do matter.

ashbaby, yes Linux Mint includes a few more extra browser in the default repositories as compared to Ubuntu and Debian (still, there are plenty of browsers not included, like qupzilla). All I'm trying to get across here is please show the developers a consideration on what OpenOffice brings that would justify taking time away from the developers' other tasks?

I'm not dismissing the idea, and you don't need to convince me I'm just saying, if there isn't a large group of Linux Mint users that would switch to OpenOffice for those as of yet unspecified considerations, then how can the developers justify to the Linux Mint community to spend their limited time on this? That's all I'm trying to get across...

The various office suites included by default in the Linux Mint repositories come from Ubuntu or Debian, and neither of those supports OpenOffice unfortunately. But if you want OpenOffice, you can readily install it from the PPA that adoptapet linked to. That what makes PPAs so great

My experience: I've been using OpenOffice under Ubuntu for years. I don't remember how/why I made that decision. But since Mint came with Libre Office, I gave that a go. But the first .ods file I opened using Libre Office didn't work; it crashed with the message Fontconfig warning: "/usr/lib/libreoffice/share/fonts/truetype/fc_local.conf", line 13: Having multiple <family> in <alias> isn't supported and may not works as expected. I didn't see any easy solutions, so I decided to go back to Open Office.

This was a pain, because the web search I did lead me here, and I ended up with pretty much these problems, which I didn't find a clear solution to. But I eventually found this thread with @adoptapet's link, and now I can open that .ods without issue.

I don't care which suite Mint comes installed with; I just wish I found these steps first go. If more people link to this thread, perhaps our followers will.

Thanks, everyone, for your kind replies and experiences. Yes, freedom a very important element for lives, professional or personal. So, like you, I hope that this link continues to be a workable solution for those who prefer Apache OpenOffice.org. The reasons that developers chose LibreOffice over Apache OpenOffice.org must have been rational to them, so it is important to respect their decisions. However, let us hope that this channel for downloading and installing Apache OpenOffice.org is never closed!

adoptapet wrote:Thanks, everyone, for your kind replies and experiences. Yes, freedom a very important element for lives, professional or personal. So, like you, I hope that this link continues to be a workable solution for those who prefer Apache OpenOffice.org. The reasons that developers chose LibreOffice over Apache OpenOffice.org must have been rational to them, so it is important to respect their decisions. However, let us hope that this channel for downloading and installing Apache OpenOffice.org is never closed!

Think the main reason most switched from Open Office to Libre office is/was at the time. Big Bad Oracle bought Open Office and nobody knew what its future held. If they would start charging for it or what. Sorta why most are going from MySQL to MariaDB due to oracle ties..

Least now Oracle gave Open Office to apache so hopefully its future will remain solid. I liked Open Office